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Monday, May 14, 2012

Wild hellhorses,
A headstrong young girl,
Women lead society, men travel as they can.

Guest reviewer Rachel Ward brings us an exciting book about a chilling future on Blogathon2012's Guest Post Day.

Silverhorse is the first book in the Katriona series, one of several written by Danish author Kaaberbøl, whose four-volume Shamer Chronicles fantasy series is published by Henry Holt Books in the USA. Check WorldCat to find a library near you to check out Silverhorse or check your favorite bookseller for a copy of this London-published novel. Its sequel, Midnight, has also been translated into English, but book 3 remains in Danish only. Perhaps reader demand will interest a US publisher in getting the entire Katriona series back in print.**kmm

Rachel's Recommendation *:
Silverhorse by Lene Kaaberbøl is set in a
post-apocalyptic world where nobody is allowed to own the land, but it is
passed down from mother to daughter. Women are the rulers with a duty to care
for the land, and men lead an itinerant life. The main character is 12-year-old
Kat, daughter of Tess, the maestra of Crowfoot Inn. Kat has a fiery temper and
fights constantly with her stepfather.

In the end, Tess has no choice but to
send Kat away, despite it being very unusual for a girl to travel in this
society. After a disastrous apprenticeship to a dyer, she ends up at the
academy for Bredinari, who ride the strange and dangerous hellhorses - wild
nightmares crossed with sturdy mountain horses - and serve justice and law in
the land of Breda. Here, Kat has to learn to control
her temper so she can master the weapons and horses she will need to handle.
Events come to a head when she gets caught up in power politics beyond her
control or understanding, and finds herself fighting for survival.

The plot rattles along at a good pace and Kat is an
engaging and sympathetic, if flawed, character. Her struggles with both authority
figures and bullies her own age are all too recognisable and the book also
tackles the reverse-sexism of her world, snobbery, loyalty, betrayal and true
friendship.

Kaaberbøl's writing is truly fantastic, in every sense of
the word. This is an excellent and compelling fantasy story, translated from
the Danish by the author herself - being able to write as well in another
language as she can in her own is a skill of which I am frankly in awe!

Since gaining her MA in Literary
Translation in 2002, Rachel Ward has been working in Norwich, United Kingdom,
as a freelance literary translator from German and French to English. She
specialises in children's and young adult literature as well as crime novels,
fantasy and other contemporary fiction.